Why Is The N S A 'S Data Center In Utah?

[Stargazer]

I'm the finance clerk of our Stake's single's branch, and last night was my semiannual audit. The auditor was new, and this was his first audit, so he was accompanied by an experienced stake financial auditor to give him some training. Since the trainer happened to work in the IT trade, as do I, we naturally got into talking about computer stuff while the new auditor was head's down examining my books (I passed the audit with flying colors, by the way).

The trainer told me that he had attended a seminar a while back, before the NSA's data center in Utah got into the news, and one of the presenters was a "Big Data" guy who had been involved with the design of that data center. They were actually talking about data in quantities that are right up there in terms of impossibly huge amounts. The figure of 3 Yottabytes was mentioned. He said it would be that much data per day being stored, but with a bit of research it turns out that to store only 1 Yottabyte would cost $100 trillion dollars using today's technology. So, no way can this be true. But regardless, there'll be a lot of data passing through, from all over the world. Just in case anyone wonders how much a Yottabyte is, imagine that you have a 1 Terabyte hard disk in your desktop computer. You would require 1 trillion such hard disks to store a single Yottabyte.

The Yottabyte aside, the question as to why the NSA is locating the data center in Utah turns out to be connected to the Church, indirectly. Whatever data is stored at that site, it is going to need to be analyzed, and before it can be analyzed, it is going to need to be translated into English. While machine translation is surely possible, all the macbhine translation I've seen has left a lot to be desired. And for languages with relatively few speakers, such as Latvian, it's going to be very problematic. And this is apparently one reason they located the site in Utah -- because it's the most likely place they can find speakers of relatively obscure languages in the local population. Because of the Church's missionary program.

Coincidentally, last night among the four of us at the audit (including the Branch President), there were four languages represented: all of us spoke English as our native tongues; and all of us were bilingual -- two in German, one in Latvian, and one in Norwegian. Apparently that is typical of LDS culture, this multi-linguality.

[Robert F. Smith]

Yes, and unlike some other states, Utah is a relatively safe place for it.

I doubt the Brethren will oppose it, as they did Reagan's "Peacemaker."

One question, though: When the NSA abandons that facility years from now, could we use it for advanced, millennial genealogical processing?

[thesometimesaint]

Just depends on how much we're willing to pay for that mess of potage.

[cdowis]

The church has alot of experience in dealing with mega databases, which would attact this talent to the project.

[strappinglad]

Much of Utah , Nevada , and other western states is 'owned' by the federal gov't and so it is logical to set up shop there. Figures have been bandied about but around 75% of Utah is so controlled by the Feds. Compare that to how much of the original 13 colonies is Fed property and you will see why the western states complain about lost taxes.

[thesometimesaint]

Much of Utah , Nevada , and other western states is 'owned' by the federal gov't and so it is logical to set up shop there. Figures have been bandied about but around 75% of Utah is so controlled by the Feds. Compare that to how much of the original 13 colonies is Fed property and you will see why the western states complain about lost taxes.

Federal lands are owned by the Federal government and were never owned by the individual states. Utah is a welfare state. It recieces more money from the Feds than they pay in.

[strappinglad]

And from here we get political, but the constitution is quite specific as to what land the Feds can own. This was ignored completely soon after the organization of the US , to the extent that by the time Alaska joined the Union, the Feds called dibs on around 90% of the land. It is called the United STATES for a reason , not the United Lands of Whatever is left over after the Federal Gov't takes its portion.

[Scott Gordon]

Nah...you guys really don't get it. The Data Center is really a cover for FAIR. That way we can track down any pesky critics. Plus, it helps us with our multi million dollar salaries we pay all apologists. THAT is why it is in Utah.

Just be careful not to use the word "FAIR" in your conversations or we will flag you.

[thesometimesaint]

CFR that the Constitution is specific on what the Feds can own.

That issue became moot long before Alaska joined the union. That issue became moot with the Louisiana Purchase.

We are called the United States of America because that is our name. We are a Federation as opposed to a Confederation.

See Articles of Confederation.

[urroner]

Nah...you guys really don't get it. The Data Center is really a cover for FAIR. That way we can track down any pesky critics. Plus, it helps us with our multi million dollar salaries we pay all apologists. THAT is why it is in Utah.

Just be careful not to use the word "FAIR" in your conversations or we will flag you.

Scott, stop trying to be so obsequious, it makes me want to gag. Hey, Mark Zuckerberg's fortune soared up an additional $3.8 billion yesterday. Why would you ever think I would or any sentient being would ever believe that you and those other croney apologists only made mult-million dollar salaries. Speciousness is so unbecoming of you.

You and Captain Kirk are two peas in a pod.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

Many companies come to Utah because it is a good place to do business, families love the environment and education is a common value in the State. Like it or not it is because of the LDS Faith that built the State. Mormonism and the values taught by it are (or is) responsible for the job market of many.

[ERayR]

The real reason the NSA center is in Utah is that everyone knows those Mormons a gullible and will believe anything hence any cover story will do. They didn't count on the astuteness of the anti-Mormon movement in Utah who, at first, thought it was a Mormon installation to keep track of dead members.

[omni]

From what ive read it was located here for a number of reasons. One, like you mentioned is the number of bilingual speakers, two is the low utility costs here (it will consume a massive amount of energy), three is need for an area safe from frequent natural disasters and close to an existing government facility (Camp Williams), and last but certainly not least least was the need for high quality/low cost labor we Mormons are famous for:)

[Kenngo1969]

Nah...you guys really don't get it. The Data Center is really a cover for FAIR. That way we can track down any pesky critics. Plus, it helps us with our multi million dollar salaries we pay all apologists. THAT is why it is in Utah.

Just be careful not to use the word "FAIR" in your conversations or we will flag you.

Is that sorta like greeting your long-lost friend "Jack" at the airport?

[Stargazer]

Federal lands are owned by the Federal government and were never owned by the individual states. Utah is a welfare state. It recieces more money from the Feds than they pay in.

With respect to federal land, that isn't quite accurate, TSS. I don't know anything about Utah's welfare-state status.

In the case of the 13 original ones, not one square inch of any of the 13 was originally owned by the federal government, which didn't exist prior to the states existence. So any land inside them that became federal was ceded grudgingly and sparingly to them by those states. Except of course for the District of Columbia, which was constitutionally ceded..

On the other hand, the states which entered the Union from land which was originally Federal territory it is completely opposite. Those states did not exist prior to joining the Union, and so you're right nothing in them was owned by the state, and everything was owned by the Federal government. In these cases, it was the Federals who ceded land grudgingly and sparingly to the states, with those states coming in later being ceded less than previous states, generally speaking. Here's a map:

[thesometimesaint]

See the Nonintercourse Acts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonintercourse_Act

American Indians weren't given the vote till 1924. Four years after it was given to women.

http://www.millelacsband.com/Page_culture.aspx?id=270

[Calm]

Federal lands are owned by the Federal government and were never owned by the individual states. Utah is a welfare state. It recieces more money from the Feds than they pay in.

And if the Feds hadn't insisted on keeping the land, there is a good chance this wouldn't be so.

[cinepro]

Here's a great article for anyone interested in the NSA Utah Data Center:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

Here's what it says about storage:

As a result of this “expanding array of theater airborne and other sensor networks,” as a 2007 Department of Defense report puts it, the Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (10²⁴ bytes) of data. (A yottabyte is a septillion bytes—so large that no one has yet coined a term for the next higher magnitude.)

It needs that capacity because, according to a recent report by Cisco, global Internet traffic will quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching 966 exabytes per year. (A million exabytes equal a yottabyte.) In terms of scale, Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, once estimated that the total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled 5 exabytes. And the data flow shows no sign of slowing. In 2011 more than 2 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people were connected to the Internet. By 2015, market research firm IDC estimates, there will be 2.7 billion users. Thus, the NSA’s need for a 1-million-square-foot data storehouse. Should the agency ever fill the Utah center with a yottabyte of information, it would be equal to about 500 quintillion (500,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text.

[thesometimesaint]

And if the Feds hadn't insisted on keeping the land, there is a good chance this wouldn't be so.

I'm pretty sure that few people would want to live out on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Las Vegas; Nevada(Originally settled by Mormons) wouldn't exist without massive federally funded water projects.

BTW you can buy BLM land when it comes up for sale. But mostly it is rented by ranchers to graze livestock on, and has little to no other value.

http://www.blm.gov/es/st/en/prog/lands/0.print.html

[Garden Girl]

Speaking of data storage facilities and the Church....

When a businessman from SLC ( and a friend of numerous top Church leaders including the Church pres... over 25 years ago), was chairman of the Board of my husband's company, two events were arranged for several company officers including my husband, and for an annual mtg. 1) a tour of the Cottonwood Canyon storage facility of genealogical records and documents, and 2) a special accomodation of our 1,000+ member group for a Tabernacle Choir practice session during our annual mtg held in SLC...

On the tour to Cottonwood Canyon, my dear non-member husband was very impressed with the facility, telling me about how it operates (or did at that time... don't know if it still does), 24 hrs a day, with various language specialists translating records and storing on microfilm... they were shown the storage area which was built into the side of the canyon with long rooms containing the records, which were maintained at a certain temperature and humidity 24/7... They were shown the empty rooms that would hold records for the fututre... up to 100 years...

Now with new technology, I assume they are using different storing, i.e., on discs vs microfilm, etc. And I'm assuming that with the new technology it is not necessary to store additional records at that facility except for security purposes.

I just mention this here because the facility was so impressive to my husband at that time...

GG

Edited July 27, 2013 by Garden Girl

[strappinglad]

TSS , you will note from the map posted by Stargazer , that there is a quite clear dividing line on the north/south border between Montana and North Dakota , where the Feds got very penny-pinching about releasing lands to the States from the Federal land holdings .

[Gervin]

The Yottabyte aside, the question as to why the NSA is locating the data center in Utah turns out to be connected to the Church, indirectly.

From my (direct) experience, there is only one reason why, in this day, a federal facility is located in Place A vs. Place B. The points listed here might contain some kernels of truth, but at the end of the day it is a political decision. Long-tenured senators get good goodies. The West Virginia bird was Byrd.

[strappinglad]

Article 1 Section 8 gives rights and restrictions of the Federal gov't. The part that seems to limit the area and type of uses of Federal lands is in paragraph 17.

[J Green]

Omni and Gervin are correct together. Hatch was involved to make the case for cheap power, among other things.

[firepatch36]

It's helps to have a colder climate for data centers to cut down on cooling costs.